ABOUT US

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Leading the fight for breath

Respira develops unique inhaled therapeutic products to address significant unmet patient needs.

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Respira applies industry-leading experience and expertise to develop pulmonary products that we believe have a high probability of technical and clinical success. Our initial focus is on 505(b)(2) products that we believe may improve the standard of care. We selectively partner with companies that have unique pulmonary delivery challenges.
 
We have developed a novel, easy-to-use, and reliable dry-powder inhalation device (AOS™ DPI) and apply advanced particle engineering formulation technologies to create products that may provide substantial new therapeutic benefits for patients.
 
Our product pipeline includes wholly owned development candidates. Our lead product candidate, RT234, is in clinical testing for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and the first of its kind for use on an “as-needed” basis (PRN).
 
We anticipate launching additional product development programs into our pipeline in 2023

Leadership Team

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John Kollins

Chief Executive Officer

  • 35 years of experience – including CEO, Board, new product development, commercialization & business / corporate development roles
  • Formerly CEO & co-founder of Satsuma Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:STSA) which developed a drug-device combination product for the treatment of migraine. Closed sale of Satsuma in June 2023
  • BSE, Duke University and MBA, UVA Darden School

Brian Dowd

Chief Financial Officer

  • Over 30 years financial operations experience with companies ranging from startups to publicly-traded companies
  • LS Associates, formerly Aligos Therapeutics, Alios BioPharma, Second Genome, Codexis

Ed Parsley

Chief Medical Officer

  • 17+ years experience in clinical drug development in pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, heart failure and rare hematologic diseases
  • Specialties include internal, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine
  • Former faculty – University of Texas, Houston

Raj Kewalramani

SVP, Product Dev & Manufacturing

  • 28+ years experience in Scale-up, Tech transfer, CDMO/Supply Chain, Manufacturing and Process Validation
  • Formulation, process and optimization experience in solid and liquid sterile/parenteral dosages and drug/device combination products
  • Expertise in NanoCrystal drug delivery platforms to improve API solubility and bioavailability
  • Former executive – Elan Drug Delivery, Apotex, Kala, and Kashiv Bio

Kathy Feldkircher

Vice President, Clinical Operations

  • 20+ years clinical operations leadership, focused on the development of therapies for pulmonary diseases
  • Former companies include InterMune, CoTherix, Actelion
  • Extensive background in PAH – Sponsor founder and partner for REVEAL
  • PhD in Behavioral Neuropsychology

Our Board

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William Fairey

Chairman

  • 30+ years experience, broad P&L, commercial & medical expertise
  • Formerly President, Actelion US; Chief Commercial Officer, MyoKardia

Mike Dybbs

Partner at Samsara BioCapital

  • Board member, Enara Bio, lONpath, Levo Therapeutics, Nkarta Therapeutics, Sutro
  • Formerly New Leaf Venture Partners
  • PhD in molecular biology, UC Berkeley

John Kollins

Chief Executive Officer

  • 35 years of experience – including CEO, Board, new product development, commercialization & business / corporate development roles
  • Formerly CEO & co-founder of Satsuma Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:STSA) which developed a drug-device combination product for the treatment of migraine. Closed sale of Satsuma in June 2023
  • BSE, Duke University and MBA, UVA Darden School

Roger Zhang

Senior Associate at Samsara BioCapital

  • Board Member, Spyglass Pharma
  • Prior Board observer roles include Mineralys and Cargo Therapeutics
  • PhD Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Stanford
Bob Curtis

Independent Consultant

  • 35+ years CEO experience in Medtech, Diagnostics, and Drug Delivery industries
  • Former SVP Pfizer Hospital Products
  • Former CEO of Shiley, Urosystems, Aerogen, Cardiopulmonics, Medtech Ventures, HemoSense, Artemis Medical, CS Fluids, MyoScience, and Respira
  • BS Ch.E., MS ME/Bioengineering – UC Berkeley

Michael Riebe

Independent Consultant

  • Formerly VP, Inhalation Product Development at AstraZeneca
  • 30+ years experience in pharmaceutical development at AZ, Pearl Therapeutics, iCeutica, Merck, GSK
  • PhD in Analytical Chemistry, Univ Wisconsin – Madison

Respira is developing
next-generation talent

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Become part of our hybrid work team.

If you are interested in an employment opportunity with Respira, please visit our official Jobs page on LinkedIn.*

CONTACT US
*ATTENTION: Respira employment opportunities not listed on our LinkedIn Jobs page may be fraudulent: READ MORE

ATTENTION

Respira has received reports of employment scams that purport to extend job offers or seek financial commitments from job candidates. Unsuspecting job seekers have reported receiving unsolicited contacts by phone, email or text from individual(s) claiming to be or represent Respira recruiter(s). Be advised that Respira does not extend unsolicited employment offers. Furthermore, Respira does not charge prospective employees with any fees or a security deposit during the recruitment process. If a person claims to provide recruitment services for Respira for a fee to the applicant or offers an unsolicited job offer, please be advised that the person is not affiliated in any way with Respira.

If you are interested in an employment opportunity with Respira, please visit our official Jobs page on LinkedIn. Job postings that do not link to this page are not legitimate and might be fraudulent.

You may report any such behavior via info@respiratherapeutics.com. If you have been defrauded or suspect identity theft as a result of an employment scam, please contact your local law enforcement agency for guidance.